Page 76 of Unbreak Me
“I need you to stay right here. Don’t move.” He forces me to look at him as I tear my gaze from the open door.
“Ryland,” I whisper.
“Is probably still sleeping,” he finishes. “I just want to check things out first.” I nod my head and watch him disappear inside. I fumble with the monitor screen and breathe a sigh of relief when I still see her body sleeping there.
I watch in horror as Ryder pulls back the covers, and a pillow is the only thing there.
NO.
I run inside and meet his eyes. I’ve never seen fear in Ryder’s eyes before, and it sinks its claws into me now as I start to violently shake my head.
“No. No. No. This isn’t happening. She’s here. She’s got to be here.” I run over to her bed and tear apart her covers. “Ryland! Come here, sweet girl.” I search our place in a frantic need before sliding to the floor. My breaths come out shallow as tears cloud my vision. Why can’t I get air? My chest painfully squeezes as I try to take in a breath.
“Eve,” Ryder drops to his knees in front of me. “I need you to look at me.” He lifts my face, and I try to focus on him, but he seems so far away. “Stay with me, baby. I need you to try and focus on breathing.”
Ryland. Images of her flood my mind and I will myself to calm down. She needs me now. I have to be strong for her. I shut my eyes tightly and try to think through the panic for answers.Think!I scream at my brain to try and make sense out of this.
A deep knowing hits me as I put all the pieces together. She’s been here all along. The grocery store, the feeling of being watched, the phone calls… She must have found out I turned my father in, and in her sick, twisted mind, she wants to take what matters most to me like I did to her.
I blink my eyes open and see the relief in Ryder’s eyes when I focus on him.
“It’s my mother, Ryder. She’s punishing me for putting my father away.”
He grabs his phone and scans through it. His brows are furrowed in concentration. “It’s her.” He shows me the video footage as I watch my mother enter our place. Bile rises in my throat as I watch her carry a sleeping Ryland with her as she leaves. “How the fuck did I let this happen!” He yells.
“We’ve got to find her.”
“Her bear’s not here,” he murmurs before looking at his phone again and furiously tapping it.
“Her bear?”
“She never goes anywhere without her bear and I was banking on it when I put an air tag in it. I did it shortly after you guys came back. I didn’t ever want to be in a position again if you left where I didn’t know where you were. I had forgotten all about it until now.”
“You had a tracker on us?”
“Yes.” He looks up at me before studying his phone again. “I wasn’t about to give your parents another chance to take you from me again.” He taps the screen. “We got her.” He shows me the map where the tracker is. “It looks like she’s at a motel about ten minutes from here. “Let’s go.” He pulls me up and grabs his keys from the counter.
“Should we call the police?” I follow him quickly out to the car before getting in.
“Not yet.” His jaw is tense as he peels out of the driveway. “I want my time with her first.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
RYDER
Idial Jake’s number knowing he can get to us fast.
“Fuck, Ryder. The sun just came up,” his sleepy voice fills the car.
“Eve’s mom took Ryland from her bed this morning. We are following the tracker to a motel about ten minutes away. I need you to meet us.”
“What?” His voice is wide awake now. “She’s gone? How the hell did that happen?”
“I don’t know. The door was locked, and we had the monitor the whole time. I’m going to send you the location. Can you meet us?”
“I’m on my way.” I hear him running before the sound of the car door shuts. I ping him my location. “Got it. What if it’s not her mom? Have you called the police yet?”
I glance over at Eve, and she’s chewing her bottom lip. I worry about her and the baby. She was seconds from passing out from a panic attack earlier. She needs this closure with her mom, though. She’s been walking around, worried her mom will show up at any moment, and this is our time to get some answers.
